“He was aware that the essence of proper intelligence was the embrace of contradiction. And the recognition of complexity was to be… — Colum McCann Copy Share Image
“His body, his mind, his soul, had, for years, served only for the profit of others. He had his own people to… — Colum McCann Copy Share Image
“Every now and then the city shook its soul out. It assailed you with an image, or a day, or a crime,… — Colum McCann Copy Share Image
“The disconnect between his mouth and his mind. That's where the camera came in. It was the unspoken thing between him and… — Colum McCann Copy Share Image
“There is something that happens to the mind in moments of terror. Perhaps we figure it's the last we'll ever have and… — Colum McCann Copy Share Image
“The elaborate search for a word, like the turning of a chain handle on a well. Dropping the bucket down the mineshaft… — Colum McCann Copy Share Image
“The ticking was gone from my mind and all was quiet everywhere in the world and I held the curtain like I… — Colum McCann Copy Share Image
“The Irish were poor, but not enslaved. He had come here to hack away at the ropes that held American slavery in… — Colum McCann Copy Share Image
“What happened then was that, for an instant, almost nothing happened. He wasn't even there. Failure didn't even cross his mind. It… — Colum McCann Copy Share Image
Give life long enough and it will solve all your problems, including the one of being alive. — Colum McCann Copy Share Image
“There is something that happens to the mind in moments of terror. Perhaps we figure it's the last we'll ever have and we record… — Colum McCann Copy Share Image
“The short sharp shock of three thousand mother two hundred mothers. The ones who picked through the supermarket debris for pieces of their dead… — Colum McCann Copy Share Image
I'm not so sure that I can teach people how to, you know, write dialogue or create plot or anything like that. But if… — Colum McCann Copy Share Image
“How long ago it was and how strange, but all dead friends come to life again sometimes.” — Colum McCann Copy Share Image
“She would want, instead, to recall him in the air, between layers of cloud. To give him back that ancient dignity.” — Colum McCann Copy Share Image
Novels are more difficult simply because they are longer and require more juggling, but short stories are closer to perfection, if you can get… — Colum McCann Copy Share Image
I think one of the biggest political failures, and the biggest social failures, over the past few years has been the failure of empathy;… — Colum McCann Copy Share Image
“Bits of it floating in the air, he said. "It's like dust. You walk about and don't see it, don't notice it, but it's… — Colum McCann Copy Share Image
“He has read whole volumes on the philosophy of nonviolence. How peace had to be understood in all its moral dimensions. The proper coexistence… — Colum McCann Copy Share Image
